SPEECH BY THE HON. ATTORNEY GENERAL (ACTING) IN LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL ON WEDNESDAY, 23RD MAY.
CRIMINAL PROCEDURE (AMENDMENT) BILL 1973.
SECOND READING.
Sir,
I move the Second Reading of the Criminal Procedure
(Amendment) Bill 1973.
Honourable Members will recall that, during the debate
on the Governor's address on the 15th November, 1972, the Attorney
General said that the Government was considering the introduction
of a system of preventive detention, the object of which is to
remove habitual criminals from society for long periods.
The Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Bill 1973 is
designed to give effect to this proposal and generally follows
the provisions of the United Kingdom Criminal Justice Act, 1948.
This Act was repealed in the United Kingdom in 1967 and replaced
by a somewhat similar system of what is called "enhanced
sentences".
It is fair to point out that this form of preventive
detention does not seem to have been particularly successful
in the United Kingdom. This may well have been due to the reluc-
tance of the courts in some cases to pass a sentence of imprison-
ment for longer than that which was appropriate for the offence
of which the accused had just been convicted. The Bill, however,
seeks to avoid this objection by providing that an ordinary
sentence shall be passed for the offence for which the accused
is in front of the court and that a sentence of preventive
detention shall be added thereafter.
The failure of preventive detention in the United
Kingdom may also be attributable to the fact that it was sometimes
used by the courts in cases not intended by the legislature.
It is a system which ought obviously to be used only against
hardened criminals who are a positive menace to society.
For